Niantic, Inc. CEO’s Twitter account gets hacked

While Pokemon GO has been the subject of attention from players and non-players alike in the United States, other countries seem to be looking at the app with furious envy. So much so, that a Brazilian activist group has gone out of its way to take over the Twitter account of John Hanke, CEO of Niantic, Inc.

Who is John Hanke?
John Hanke is an American entrepreneur who founded Niantic, the company responsible for augmented virtual reality apps such as Ingress and the massively popular Pokemon GO. Pokemon GO was originally conceived by the late Satoru Iwata, former president of Nintendo, and Tsunekazu Ishara from The Pokemon Company as an April Fools challenge with Google’s collaboration. Having both admired Niantic’s previous game, Ingress, the two approached the company to develop Pokemon GO. The app was a collaboration between Niantic and some of staff from Nintendo; including longtime Pokemon composer Junichi Masuda. At Comic Con 2016, John Hanke revealed the appearances of the team leaders in the game.

Which regions support Pokemon GO?
Pokemon GO was originally released in Australia, New Zealand, and the United States on July 6th of this year. Because of sever problems attributed to high demand, John Hanke announced that the app’s release in other regions would be postponed.

Who has hacked John Hanke?
John Hanke’s twitter account was hacked by a Saudi Arabia-based activist group who voiced frustration in Pokemon GO not being available in Brazil. The group calls themselves ourmine and they claim that their goal is to expose security leaks in the social media accounts of popular figures. They tweeted “don’t worry we are just testing your security, visit our website to upgrade your security!? [sic].” They also posted a tweet showing Hanke’s password: nopass. They offer a social media security service where they will check for security flaws at a rate of $5,000. The tweets have been deleted. Hopefully, Hanke will learn from ourmine and craft a much more secure password. #Pokémon GO